Grant’s Signature Racing Completes Rigging For New Nuff Said Team Super Stock Raceboat

Owned by Stephen Moniz of Bermuda, the newest Super Stock-class Nuff Said raceboat was slated to debut this weekend at the Clearwater Nationals in Southwest Florida. That was the plan, and Grant’s Signature Racing of Bradenton had the eye-popping 32-foot Doug Wright Powerboats catamaran rigged and prepped for the Race World Offshore-produced event.

The newest member of offshore racing’s Super Stock class, Nuff Said had its first test session yesterday in Sarasota, Fla. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

Hurricane Helene erased those plans. The organizers canceled the Clearwater races yesterday thanks to the coming Category 2 storm.

Still, Grant Bruggemann and his crew had the Doug Harrell-painted catamaran powered by Mercury Racing 300R outboard engines ready to go. Yesterday they ran the cat for the first time and then turned it over to throttleman Andy Stoneham and driver Luis Martins, who, like team owner Stephen Moniz, are from Bermuda.

“I went out with Luis, showed him a few things and set a ‘breadcrumb trail’ in Sarasota Bay so they would know where to go,” Bruggemann said. “Then Luis and Andy went out for the first time—they ran 56 miles. Then we flushed it, washed it and put it away.”

The 32-footer arrived at Grant’s Signature Racing as a painted hull in July. The first order of business for the crew was to weigh the boat so Bruggemann and the team could “see what we were working with.” Per American Power Boat Association guidelines, each Super Stock raceboat can weigh no less than 4,900 pounds when it comes out of the water. So weighing every Super Stock cat before they rig it is crucial standard operating procedure for Grant’s Signature Racing.

Grant’s Signature Racing put more than 300 hours into rigging the 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran. Photos courtesy Kellie Bruggemann

So, too, is wrapping the boat in protective foam to avoid scratching its paintwork, in this case vibrant pink and a tribute from team-owner Moniz to those he has lost—including his parents—to cancer.

Bruggemann, who has rigged “more than 10” Super Stock-class raceboats, started as usual with laying out and rigging the catamaran’s transom. But while Bruggemann’s work started at the stern, Young and his fellow Grant’s Signature Racing teammate Trevor Neumann began working inside the cockpit. The boat was set on dollies with enough elevation for Young and Neumann to access the cockpit through the hull-bottom escape hatch between the cat’s sponsons.

The majority of the rigging components had been pre-ordered by Bruggemann’s wife and business partner, Kellie, and were in-house and set on carts before the boat arrived. From start to finish, rigging a Super Stock cat takes 300 to 350 hours for Bruggemann and his crew. But raceboat rigging jobs are just one aspect of the company’s business—Grant’s Signature Racing also builds out and rigs pleasure boats, and has significant service and maintenance clientele in both the high-performance pleasure boating and offshore racing segments.

All of that combined makes efficiency across the board crucial.

Andrew Young and Trevor Neumann will stay with the Nuff Said team for its first few races.

“Everything we need is there when the boat arrives,” Bruggemann explained. “The seats had already been fitted to Andy and Luis—they came from Bermuda for a fitment session. We installed the seats on different brackets because Luis and Andy are not the same height. We installed the throttles in the right position for Andy and the helm/steering wheel the right distance from Luis.”

Flanked by a pair of four-inch GMI digital speed read-outs and two monitors for the cat’s AIM telemetry systems, a 16-inch Garmin unit was mounted at the center of the dash.

“It’s important for both the driver and co-pilot to have a clear line of sight to all the instruments,” Bruggemann said. “Our goal in raceboat dash setup always is to keep it functional, minimal and tasteful.”

No holes were drilled for the requisite wiring and cable-routing in the cockpit. Instead, the crew used carbon-fiber clips epoxied in place to support all wires and cables. The boat employs a Bluetooth communication system for the driver, throttleman and crew. For redundancy, the cockpit crew also has a hard-wire push-to-talk system.

The 32-footer will be hard to miss on the water.

With the Clearwater event scrubbed, the team plans to race the boat the for the first time at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix next month. The race isn’t part of the now-completed 2024 Super Stock-class national championship points-chase, so competition on the racecourse will be minimal. Neither the team’s driver or throttleman has extensive offshore racing experience—and zero Super Stock experience in the current short-course, big-fleet form of the fiercely competitive class. The St. Pete event will provide good experience in a low-stress environment for the team before it moves on to the Race World Offshore Key West World Championships in early November.

“Andrew and Trevor will stay with them for the first few races to help out,” Bruggemann said. “We also are planning to have another test session with the guys before St. Pete. And then it’s off to Key West.”